Understanding Songs, Patterns, and Kits on the Boss DR-880.

The following is a description of Songs, Patterns and Drum Kits and how they are used in the DR-880:

SONGS – A Song can be compared in some ways to a movie script. A Song simply dictates where and when to play a certain pattern. It contains no performance data itself. A Song can also be described as a group or “chain” of patterns linked together, that play automatically from one to the other and so on. There are 100 Song locations in the DR-880.

PATTERNS – Patterns are the building blocks of Songs. They are the small (or large) chunks of “music” that actually contain the performance of the instruments. There are 500 Preset and 500 User pattern locations in the DR-880.

KITS – Kits (“Drum Kits”) are individual groups that contain Drum and Bass instruments with their individual settings. Kits contain the “sounds” that you hear when you play a pattern. Each kit has it’s own number and can have it’s own distinctive personality.
Similar to the idea of having an acoustic Drum set – the type of set it is, the tuning of the drums, the different cymbals it has, etc. – all make up what is referred to as a “drum kit.” Any of the Kits in the DR-880 can be customized to your liking and then saved into a User Kit location. It’s possible to change instrument volume levels and pitch, effects settings, and even more. There are 100 Preset and 100 User pattern locations in the DR-880.

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Although they work together, Songs, Patterns and Kits are different from each other. This is the reason they’re utilized in three separate sections in the DR-880. Any changes that you make to a Song, Pattern or Kit must be saved in each of their respective User locations. For example, changing the volume of an instrument in a Drum Kit and then saving it to User Kit 001, will not necessarily effect User Pattern 001, nor would it effect User Song 001.

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